Why Bringing Wearable tech to the Masses Ain’t Easy

If you want to know what the wearable tech of the future will look like, Steven Holmes is a good person to ask.

Having developed the first minimally invasive heart surgery system, worked on Apple’s Power Mac Cube, helped Palm turn the smartphone into a must-have product and supervised the introduction of the FuelBand, the now VP of Intel’s New Devices Group, has an impressive track-record for disruptive innovation.

But as originally reported by Stuff, Holmes points out that bringing wearable technology to the masses won’t be easy.

Why? Well according to Holmes, “There’s a bunch of obstacles to wearables being more than a curiosity or a flash in the pan. We’re looking very carefully at making these things something that people will want to wear… We believe that design and fashion can solve the stigma that goes with wearing some of these products.”

Holmes adds that, “A lot of companies have been focussed on what the ‘killer app’ could be for wearables, without realising that there’s already a ‘killer app’ for things we wear – they make us feel good about ourselves.”

Some additional obstacles include:

The need for a human behavioural shift

The complexity of some of the markets current products

The additional burden wearing the device presents the wearer

Limited battery life

Though in its “early days,” few (including Holmes) use their wearables religiously. But, like smartphone adoption, that should change as the tech becomes more widely adopted, and product benefits increase.